The last blog focused on Deceit: How City Leadership Has Repeatedly Misled the Community. Today’s blog is titled Time For The Guardrails!
The competing goals are playing themselves out as the volunteer three-member Financial Advisory Board tries to implement a policy for the General Reserve Fund for the City.
What are these goals?
- A clear General Fund Reserve is set at a minimum of 10% or possibly higher.
- A clear Emergency Fund sets either a percent or a monetary figure representing three months of the budget.
- A Trust to begin to pay off the pension debt, which appears to be $70 million.
Obviously, the Council and the City Manager hadn’t discussed this issue much for the past years, as we didn’t have much to set aside yearly with rising personnel costs and stagnant revenues. The Financial Advisory Board did make recommendations, but they were met with silence.
With COVID, a State Audit and a Federal bailout, the City sits more comfortably. Not only are they talking about setting money aside, they are also talking about spending more money. They want a new library and must be financially able to make this project a reality.
The Financial Advisory Board is supposed to make recommendations for prudent financial actions. They came to the meeting to refine policy, specifically ensuring the establishment of the Emergency Fund.
The City Manager suggested that for the purposes of the bond market (money lenders) that the Emergency Fund be part of the General Reserve Fund, with clear language spelling out the use of the funds.
Ultimately as the dialogue unfolded at the FAB meeting, it seemed clear that the discussion boiled down to flexibility and maneuverability of funds. I totally get it. When you want to build programs and add services, etc., it’s necessary to have some flexibility.
However, and this is a big, history thus far has shown that the City Manager, along with past city council members, may not always show good judgment. Who is going to provide the reality check? We thought it might be the Financial Advisory Board. Still, as the City Manager joked at the meeting, the City had a policy for a 10 percent reserve for years but, time again and again, fell short of this goal.
Ultimately the FAB should make recommendations that are prudent for the City’s financial health and not tailored to the needs of the CM or City Council. If the final truth is that it really doesn’t matter because the policy is not legally binding, and the City Council can do as they please, guided by the City Manager, then at a minimum, establishing a separate Emergency Fund would be most prudent. Creating a clear distinction may have the appearance of smaller reserves from the view of the moneylenders.
Still, it should put residents at ease knowing we could trust that the funds hadn’t been raided in times of disaster or apparent emergency.
Until El Cerrito develops a long-term plan that responsibly accounts for service delivery, it doesn’t deserve any new money
El Cerrito, the City needs you. Please attend the monthly Financial Advisory Board meetings in person. Council meetings are both remote and in-person. City leadership is more accountable to taxpayers when citizens attend meetings.
The City Council meeting with be on August 15th. The schedule is here.
The next FAB meeting will be on August 27th. The schedule is here.
El Cerrito Committee for Responsible Government (ECCRG) 
The City is spending $75k a year to fund a vending machine full of junk foods in the police department. Since inception of the program, the City has spent $45,243 with $24k spent on energy drinks, candy/chocolates, chips & cookies. The signed contract is for $75k per year each year, for three years. Do people on that kind of salary need free junk food? Since inception the city has purchased 4,422 candy bars for the vending machine, 3,464 energy drinks, and 5,300 bags of chips and packages of cookies.
LikeLike
Kind of a petty issue, but that free snack machine you mention is one little way to retain officers in El Cerrito. It works too. Fact is the ECPD is now near full staff while other nearby jurisdictions triage 911 calls due to a lack of sufficient resources. Considering the significant cost of training new officers coming on board, the snack machine probably more than pays for itself.
Cops are typically not healthy eaters. Working 12 hours a day running from call to call is not conducive to smart dining. The poster says the machine is full of junk food so I can assume the poster uses the machine too, as it is not in a public area. Did you consume one of those 5300 bags of chips? Then, leave a tip. Whether an individual gets apples or candy bars from the snack machine is an individual choice. A low cost perk that keeps the department well staffed and officers happy is a good investment.
Kensington allows patrol vehicles to go home with officers. A much appreciated benefit that saves those officers money. That would not work in a larger department such as El Cerrito, but thinking out of the box is smart.
Some cities are offering more money, in the form of bonuses. El Cerrito cannot do that. However, snack machines and uniform cleaning do fit into our budget. In the long run, those perks save the City money.
Thanks for totaling up the number of chips, candy bars, and energy drinks, for all to see. I wanted to do that myself. However, I am simply too busy working to have the time to check on that kind of stuff. I read these posts on my downtime.
Credit most likely goes to the ECPEA and the Chief for getting it done. Good work.
LikeLike
Sir, please refrain from name-calling. It’s OK to state your support of city activities as long as the comments are on topic. But it’s not okay to demean others. Please stop
LikeLike
On response to the retention and recruitment side of the issue. In no way does a vending machine swing the decision to work for any city. While the PD might be close to being fully staffed, in 12 months that will change and by 18 months 50% of those with less than 3 years on will be gone for other agencies. Why? – because of a lack of support from City staff, a lack of opportunity, a lack of pay/benefits, and horrible working conditions. The building is the oldest in the county, leaks regularly, does not have enough room, and is simply an eyesore. Throw into that mix no medical after retirement and being charged double the going rate to stay on the medical plan, the saga of personnel leaving will continue. While it might be called petty, several $75k petty items is a big chunk of money that could be better spent. Question; government contracts require request for proposals, was one ever done for this? What account is the money coming from? Possible accounting violations related to it. To blindly accept that it helps with recruitment is not factual and an attempt to make it seem better. Maybe the city and police department should just cater lunch everyday; twice a day as recruitment. I don’t work for the city and have never taken part in the free handout; it would be an ethical violation to accept a free meal in uniform and I think there is a policy prohibiting such.
LikeLike
This is the first and last warning.
LikeLike
Over the passed 5 years, the City Manager east lunch an average of 2.5 times per week using the city credit card to pay. The City Manager average expenditure on lunches per week is $150. She has additional expenditures for meals while galivanting all over the U.S. and abroad, but just for lunches in and around El Cerrito her yearly totals average $4,500 per year on top of her salary.
LikeLike
Travel for the City Manager averages over $20,000 per year and when you add in her salary, because she does not take leave hours to go to conferences, the yearly total is in excess of $50k on top of her tax payer funded salary. The woman has been to China, Greece, numerous States, and additional countries; all while supposedly running the city. Remember, tax payers fund this travel, fund her salary, and fund her vacation time.
LikeLike
Deceit is not the word, it is complete arrogance to travel on the city dime, eat meals on the city credit card, and still collect a salary. At that pay rate, one would think buying your own lunch and meals is customary and expected. They also now have free dry cleaning and the top salary people of the police department; a lieutenant and the chief use the service more than anyone else. There is also a tax allowance for uniforms, so why again is free dry cleaning needed? Why would people making $150k to $230k need free dry cleaning?
LikeLike